Ganguly endorses split captaincy but says Dhoni should continue

New Delhi: Former skipper Sourav Ganguly on Sunday, endorsed the idea of "split captaincy" and said Mahendra Singh Dhoni should not be leading the Indian cricket team in all formats.

"I am not saying just ship him off all the formats of the game because India are going into a transition phase and building a new team.

"Sit with Dhoni and ask him what form of cricket he wants to captain. He has done a lot of good things for Indian cricket, but at the present moment, I am just fearing that we will lose him as a player if he continues like this," Ganguly said with a note of caution.

Despite having lost six out of the last seven Tests against England, Ganguly chose not to be too harsh on Dhoni.

"Keeping is never easy and when you have a bowling attack like ours, which has not performed over a period of time. You keep for hours and then you captain the side and you come out and bat at no. 7.

"So it's never easy for for Dhoni and I'm a firm believer that his job has to be split and he needs a reprieve in some format," Ganguly told a private news channel.

Talking on Sachin Tendulkar's form, the former India skipper said, "Sachin desperately needs to get runs. He has achieved a lot. He is getting a long rope because of what he has achieved. He should know himself that how he needs to turn it around.

"As somebody watching it from outside Tendulkar not performing, I think if I was Tendulkar I would go. But it's upto him at the present moment. We want to see the great man going with a bat held high and not in terrible form.''